COLUMN: Pack has everything for NCAA except big wins

By Brett Friedlander

Published: Thursday, February 27, 2014 at 04:31 PM.

RALEIGH – N.C. State passes the eye test when it comes to NCAA tournament teams. It has a star player. It has improved over the course of the season. It doesn’t have any egregious losses with its full roster available. It has gone toe-to-toe down to the wire with some of the best teams in college basketball. The one thing the Wolfpack hasn’t done is beaten an opponent currently ranked among the nation’s top 50.

That’s a big deal, since the NCAA tournament selection committee uses criteria such as that, rather than the eye test, to fill its 68-team bracket. Coach Mark Gottfried’s team had one of its last best chances to fill the most glaring void on its season resume Wednesday night at PNC Arena. But as it has so many times in the past, including two weeks ago at then-No. 1 Syracuse, State couldn’t finish the job when it had the chance. Tuesday’s 85-84 overtime loss to North Carolina was even more painful than that near-miss at the Carrier Dome because this time, it was the hated Tar Heels that ripped State’s heart out. Again.

Though there are still three regular season games left to play and the ACC tournament as a final safety net after that, this is the loss the Wolfpack and its long-suffering fans will point to as the one they’d like to have back if, in fact, they’re forced to return to PNC Arena for a first-round NIT game instead of the NCAA tournament come March.

State (17-11, 7-8) have every opportunity to fashion a different ending and put a stop to a UNC winning streak that has been extended to double figures at 10.

The Tar Heels clearly didn’t have their best legs, as the combined 3 for 16 shooting effort of James Michael McAdoo and Leslie McDonald showed. And yet, despite being the fresher team, the Wolfpack didn’t take full advantage of the situation after opening up as much as an 11-point lead late in the first half. One reason for that is the foul trouble that sidelined star forward T.J. Warren early in the second half. The other was UNC point guard Marcus Paige, who put on his typical second-half scoring show to almost singlehandedly rally the Tar Heels.

Warren eventually came back and despite being saddled with four fouls, propped his team on his shoulders and tried to will it to victory by matching Paige basket for basket during an incredibly tense and exciting stretch run, Warren scored 10 of his team’s final 14 points in regulation, eight of which tied the score while Paige accounted for UNC’s final seven in what felt like a playground game of one-on-one with 19,500 fans cheering them on. The Wolfpack star won the individual battle by netting a career high of 36 points. Paige also finished with a career-high 35.

But that was little consolation to Warren, whose turnover in front of the UNC bench with 37 seconds left in overtime and a missed free throw a half of minute later set the state for one final Tar Heel comeback. Almost on cue, it was Paige that drove the final stake into State’s heart – and possibly its NCAA tournament hopes – by driving into the lane and scoring the winning basket with less than a second remaining.

It was the kind of ending that left the once-festive Wolfpack crowd in stunned silence, even though its one it has seen all too many times before.

RALEIGH – N.C. State passes the eye test when it comes to NCAA tournament teams. It has a star player. It has improved over the course of the season. It doesn’t have any egregious losses with its full roster available. It has gone toe-to-toe down to the wire with some of the best teams in college basketball. The one thing the Wolfpack hasn’t done is beaten an opponent currently ranked among the nation’s top 50.

That’s a big deal, since the NCAA tournament selection committee uses criteria such as that, rather than the eye test, to fill its 68-team bracket. Coach Mark Gottfried’s team had one of its last best chances to fill the most glaring void on its season resume Wednesday night at PNC Arena. But as it has so many times in the past, including two weeks ago at then-No. 1 Syracuse, State couldn’t finish the job when it had the chance. Tuesday’s 85-84 overtime loss to North Carolina was even more painful than that near-miss at the Carrier Dome because this time, it was the hated Tar Heels that ripped State’s heart out. Again.

Though there are still three regular season games left to play and the ACC tournament as a final safety net after that, this is the loss the Wolfpack and its long-suffering fans will point to as the one they’d like to have back if, in fact, they’re forced to return to PNC Arena for a first-round NIT game instead of the NCAA tournament come March.

State (17-11, 7-8) have every opportunity to fashion a different ending and put a stop to a UNC winning streak that has been extended to double figures at 10.

The Tar Heels clearly didn’t have their best legs, as the combined 3 for 16 shooting effort of James Michael McAdoo and Leslie McDonald showed. And yet, despite being the fresher team, the Wolfpack didn’t take full advantage of the situation after opening up as much as an 11-point lead late in the first half. One reason for that is the foul trouble that sidelined star forward T.J. Warren early in the second half. The other was UNC point guard Marcus Paige, who put on his typical second-half scoring show to almost singlehandedly rally the Tar Heels.

Warren eventually came back and despite being saddled with four fouls, propped his team on his shoulders and tried to will it to victory by matching Paige basket for basket during an incredibly tense and exciting stretch run, Warren scored 10 of his team’s final 14 points in regulation, eight of which tied the score while Paige accounted for UNC’s final seven in what felt like a playground game of one-on-one with 19,500 fans cheering them on. The Wolfpack star won the individual battle by netting a career high of 36 points. Paige also finished with a career-high 35.

But that was little consolation to Warren, whose turnover in front of the UNC bench with 37 seconds left in overtime and a missed free throw a half of minute later set the state for one final Tar Heel comeback. Almost on cue, it was Paige that drove the final stake into State’s heart – and possibly its NCAA tournament hopes – by driving into the lane and scoring the winning basket with less than a second remaining.

It was the kind of ending that left the once-festive Wolfpack crowd in stunned silence, even though its one it has seen all too many times before.